


Time Will Tell

by kikibug13



Category: Blood Ties (TV)
Genre: Consequences, Despair, Gen, Heartbreak, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 11:26:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikibug13/pseuds/kikibug13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the end of the finale, four people think about where each of them is, and what the future will bring.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Will Tell

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eye_Of_Argonia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eye_Of_Argonia/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, dear recipient!
> 
> In my canon review to write this, I was struck all over again what a mess that last episode left each of the main characters in, and so... here's some still-shocky dealing with it by each of them. I'm sure all four will have better views on the future once they have calmed down, a bit.

Less than twelve hours ago, Coreen's upper chest had been perfect for wearing her usual tops, open and supported by a corset.

Now, there was a jagged scar running over her breast. She would have been unhappy about it, but a part of her knew exactly how close she had come to never waking up, and...

She didn't know. So long, she'd been trying to have something extraordinary happen to her (it was _always_ Vicki, not that she looked _happy_ about it, but come to an actual enthusiast? Nothing really interesting. Not like Coreen wanted it, anyway!) and now, this.

Her body felt like crap. Even worse, she felt like crap on the inside, and she did not want to be going through that. But she'd been awake the entire time, she _knew_ what Astaroth wanted, what he didn't, what he had been through, and that burned through her worse than anything like the scar itself, or being mad about _who_ took the heart off the _top_ of a breast, anyway? A moron demon, anyway, except. 

Except. 

He wasn't that much of a moron, was he. 

He had put each of them exactly where he wanted them. He had jumped into Coreen using her willingness to help Vicki. 

He had then taken the weakest of them left. (Even pinned to the floor by a sword, Henry had been far too strong for him. Mike obviously wouldn't work, and Vicki...)

Vicki had told him no. 

But she had also told him _yes, go forth and do what you want_. Oh, not in those words. She'd said it by giving Coreen back her life, because she'd thought she could help both her and the world, of course she had. 

_Stars_ , Vicki. Coreen had heard ... everything. If she hadn't been too dizzy, she'd have gotten up to talk to both of them before they did their idiot thing. Vicki was strong, she always would be strong, and the demon would never own her, but that didn't mean that she couldn't break.

Didn't mean that, without the men who loved her, she _wouldn't_ break.

Coreen tried to hold on to that thought, but it seemed that darkness would claim her, despite her efforts. She slipped into a fitful sleep, to wake up (so much later) to gray light of day, a glass of water, and Vicki sitting with her knees drawn up, against the wall. Watching over her. What was _wrong_ with people, Vicki included, that they never could get things right anymore? 

Vampires counted as people. 

*** 

Henry wasn't really packing. He was actually sitting on his bed, facing the wall, and listening to his heart breaking. 

Even through the thick doors, he could hear each of Victoria's tears as they splashed on his carpet, or on the collar of her jacket. The hitch in each of her breaths, the sniffling. He could go back out to her. He could tell her it would be okay, that he would stay (no, he wasn't going to, and lying to her wasn't going to help). He could go out and _make_ her come with him. Even with her resistance to his pushes, he could make her. He could then persuade her to stay. 

But that wasn't going to be the woman he fell in love with. The Victoria Nelson who wasn't afraid of the dark, or to stand up to what lurked in the dark. Even when she couldn't see it, she stood up against it. Against the death of those she held dear, against the death of those who didn't deserve it. And that was exactly why she had to stay.

And why he had to go. Not because he couldn't help. But because it wasn't his place to do so. (It was Celluci's. And he had walked out on her. But he was the one who could be by her side while she walked. Henry... Henry was going to walk away, he was going to have to walk away, one day. Because he always survived. And humans didn't. Time took them.) (Or being what they were took them. It was always going to end in betrayal.)

Without him, she would figure it out. Figure out how to stop the demon, figure out how to help Coreen. Figure out how to salvage what she had with Celluci. 

And he...

He walked his dark path alone. 

And his heroines would never be called Victoria. 

***

Mike punched the wall the moment he stepped inside his place. Everything that mattered in his life - his job, the woman he loved - it was gone. He had the taste of Vicki on his lips and the knowledge that, no matter what he did, no matter what he would do, his life was done with. And it hurt. It hurt so bad, and that was why Vicki never let them in, because she hurt even more deeply than any of them, but he couldn't take it, right now.

Tonight, there was alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol. 

Tomorrow, when Crowley called just when the hangover was over, he would deal with the wreckage. It would be a normal, ordinary wreckage. No demons, no vampires, no werecreatures, no time loops. Just him, and his misconduct, and his loss, and everything normal. 

No Vicki, but she wasn't going to let go of the darkness, either, and he couldn't follow her there. Not when she didn't let him bring the light and was letting her own burn out, night after night after night. 

Nothing was incorruptible. 

And Mike, more than anyone alive (or undead) knew the choice Vicki would make when she realized where she was heading. 

He couldn't stop her. He couldn't save her. 

Maybe, he would be able to pick up the pieces, once she was gone. 

*** 

Vicki kept her eyes open and fixed on Coreen, as she slept uneasily. Her brain was blank. The way today was going, Coreen was going to walk out of her life, too, as soon as she had the strength to do so. It didn't matter, either way. 

Vicki was going to take the emptiness inside her, pick up the pieces of her armor, build a new one out of it, and go catch that son of a gun. And then...

She didn't know. She'd figure it out. Figuring things out was what she did, after all. 

What she felt... hadn't ever mattered, anyway, had it? 

Henry had some stupid old clock that ticked away seconds. She couldn't hear the traffic outside, but she knew it had to be there. Dawn would be soon, maybe when Coreen woke up, they'd better leave Henry alone, to wake up and leave as he'd decided to do. 

One little thing after another. Systematically. Persistently. Until she had made it through whatever lay ahead. 

Vicki thought what was about to come her way... 

And cried again, until she couldn't breathe, until she had no strength to cry more. Then got up, poured herself some water, and settled in to wait. 

Time would tell.


End file.
